


Twilight Omens

by sophasil



Series: The Phoenix [3]
Category: Destiny (Video Games)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-27
Updated: 2017-12-27
Packaged: 2019-02-22 18:40:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,288
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13172871
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sophasil/pseuds/sophasil
Summary: An alternate story to how the Guardian made it to the Farm.Mostly I wanted to explore how they would be feeling through losing the Light and it went from there, a lot of Fallen stuff.Although part of a series it is also very much a stand alone type thing.





	1. Chapter 1

For the first time since the assault the pair could finally look at what the Red legion had latched to the Traveler, a massive six pronged star-shaped construct. The two Guardians stared at the Traveler than at each other. “What is that thing?” Callisto asked.

Polaris looked down at the state the City was in. The Tower in ruins, buildings aflame, every human ship evacuation in all directions. “Callisto… How do we come back from this?” Her breathing became heavier, but it made no difference as the panic continued to rise. “How?”

The Guardians were spaced out, neither could hardly process what was happening. Ghosts doing their job to keep their Guardians safe. “Amanda! Amanda, respond. Requesting evac!”

Over fuzzy comms the two Guardians could just about make out Amanda’s response. “No can do team, going to be a bit late. Got some shoddy Cabal flyers on me. Stay alive a little longer you two.”

Polaris shook her head in disbelief, she took her helmet off. At the height the Cabal ship hovered at, the wind whipped around her face, blowing her hair all about. The warlock turned to her friend once more, hoping for something. “Callisto, how do we come back from this?”

“You don’t,” a low gravelly voice boomed.

Startled, the Guardians turned around to face a group of Cabal following them out onto the external deck of the ship. The leader in front, the tallest, dressed in distinct white armour embellished with gold. Behind him trailed two Cabal dressed in armour neither Guardian had ever seen before. The leader raised his arm to gesture at the Traveler as the construct activated, an orange hued glow emanated from the construct. The glow began to spread from the construct to envelop all of the Traveler.

Callisto, the brasher of the two Guardians turned back to the Cabal. Staring him down she raised both hands to flip off the Cabal. “This is Earth,” she shouted, “you’re in our Solar System. So FUCK OFF or I’ll be back to kill you.” Callisto turned back to her friend, nodded, and sprinted towards the edge of the dock. Jumping off the end and plummeting downwards.

“Callisto?” Polaris whispered. She didn’t know what to do now, Callisto was confident… maybe too confident. The Warlock didn’t know if she was confident enough to jump off the ship. Too many variables. _What is that thing?_

“You creatures are pathetic. Welcome to a world _without_ light.” The light had fully enveloped the Traveler now. The orange hued Traveler looked so off. Worse something was off with Ghost and her. Ghost was barely able to keep himself afloat, and she could hardly keep herself up. She didn’t know what Ghost was feeling, but to her it felt as though the Traveler’s very light had been ripped from her soul.

Ghost drifted to the floor. Polaris rushed to her knees to pick him up, cradling the little robot in her hands. “Polaris… something’s wrong…” Ghost’s central light flickered before returning to normal. Their light was gone, she had to do something, had to protect him, she owed her Ghost that much. Now was a worse time than ever to follow Callisto, light gone how could she make it. _Maybe Amanda was available for transmat?_ Too many variables. 

The cabal started to walk over to her now, she was trembling. Too many variables. Was this their end, they couldn't connect to the Traveler’s Light. Polaris was angry, furious. They’d stopped a Vex god, two Hive gods, and Skolas the would be Kell of Kells; now a space rhino - as Callisto had described cabal once - was about to take everything from her. She didn’t know what to do, Polaris wanted to tell it every curse she could think of but when it finally approached her she couldn’t muster any words. All the warlock could do was cry, and cradle her Ghost to protect him.

The Cabal stared down the crying, snotty, desperate Guardian in disgust. “Do not look at me, creature!” He kicked Polaris hard in the stomach and she went flying across the deck, sliding closer towards the edge. “You are weak. Undisciplined. Cowering behind walls. You’re not brave. You’ve merely forgotten the fear of death. Allow me to reacquaint you.” He told her the warlock scrambled across the deck to barely put her helmet on before he kicked her again, just as hard; again the cabal’s kick sent her flying across the deck. She’d put her helmet on just in time but hadn’t been prepared for her kick that sent Ghost out of her hands and cascading down into the City below. 

Polaris knew this was her end, she was near enough the edge that he could kick her off. She watched as the cabal stepped towards her. Polaris closed her eyes waiting for the impact, under her breath gently muttering, “I’m so sorry Ghost.”

“Your kind never deserved this power you were given. I am Ghaul. And your Light… is mine.” The final kick did it. Polaris plummeted downwards into the wreckage of the City below. She kept her eyes shut, body tense, waiting for her final moments as she made contact with the ground.


	2. Chapter 2

“Hello? Ghost? Little Light? Please…” Polaris called out to the void. The City was in turmoil. Buildings aflame, destroyed, in the distance Cabal marched in formation followed by Goliath Tanks. Last she saw Ghaul - _Ghaul, was that his name?_ \- the City was under siege, but it wasn’t in this condition. She had no idea how long she’d been gone. The sky was grey from smoke, but she could still see the hideous cage the Cabal had placed over the Traveler. Voidfand in tatters, Havoc Pigeon busted, she couldn’t locate Ghost, and he wasn’t with her. _Is he okay? Please, Traveler, keep Ghost safe until I find him. She pushed herself off the rubble and picked up her guns, Raze-Lighter was gone, in her ship - irretrievable now. Where is my ship? Ghost handles that… Where is Ghost…? He couldn’t get far, right? He fell just before Ghaul had…_ Without her Ghost she couldn’t heal. Being kicked off a ship took its toll on her body.

Wandering through the wreckage Polaris aimlessly stumbled through the City looked for her Ghost. She wandered some streets down before hearing a distinct voice not far from her, and the faintest blue light flickering. “Polaris?” It was Ghost. She was certain. It had to be. No one else could still be on the streets looking for her, not now… not anymore. “This is awful – awful!” She saw him now, busted, but still just barely floating. Her Ghost. Her Little Light. Polaris tried to rush to him, but collapsed on her way. Making enough noise on her way down Ghost saw his Guardian fall, floating his way over to her badly wounded body. “This can’t be happening…” He told himself as he made his way over seeing the damage Ghaul had done. “Polaris…? You’re alive… I thought I’d lost you. I can heal you, but I can’t resurrect you. Not since… Polaris… the Light is gone. They’ve taken the City, the Traveler, everything… The Red Legion is killing powerless Guardians. We have to get out of here.” Like countless times before Ghost healed her, much slower than every time previously, but at least his Guardian was back with him. At least he still had a Guardian to heal; countless others would not be coming back this time.

Able to walk again Polaris pushed herself up once more, this time ditching her old weapons - they couldn’t help her now. As they wandered ghost picked up a Vanguard transmission. “I’m picking up an emergency broadcast. Rendezvous coordinates. They’re evacuating the planet.” He informed her. “We’re on our own…”

Stumbling through the wreckage the duo came across a rubble pile too high to simply step over. Instinctively the she attempted to Glide over it until the realisation hit her again. “No powers…” she muttered to herself as she recklessly started climbing over the concrete and metal. 

As they continued their way out of the City the two occasionally found themselves hiding from squadrons of Cabal on patrol, and Threshers in the sky. Last thing they needed now with their second chance was to get caught defenceless and end up dead anyway. 

Eventually Polaris and Ghost found their way out of the City, slipping past the red Legion undetected. Heading into the snowy mountains she thought of her teammate Callisto. She didn’t see her along the way; Polaris couldn’t tell if that was bad or good. Ghost looked at her knowing why she’d gone so quiet. “She got out before us… Callisto is a reckless idiot but well… She’s tough. I know you’re scared and you want to find her but we can’t go back now. We have to keep moving,” Ghost said trying to reassure her.

Polaris smiled and cupped her Ghost. “I know, I just… Not again.”

Days of travelling through the mountains and hiding from Threshers finally led her to the first promacing sight in days. The Guardian was exhausted from constant travelling and having to stay secret, but now she could see a flag fluttering high atop a pole. A flag that bore the Vanguard symbol. Other Guardians, at last! She hurried her way over the rocks only to find Guardians. Two lay dead in their campsite. A Titan and Warlock. “These Guardians… They had no chance without their powers. That could be us… Polaris – if you die… I can’t resurrect you. We need to be very careful.” Ghost said solemnly, scanning the pair.

“I know, Ghost…” Polaris sighed. The two looked through the campsite for anything useful they could take with them. When the Cabal attacked they had lost everything. Everything stored in the vault, everything they kept in their ship, everything they kept in their room, even the weapons they had on them had been abandoned now - left in the wreckage of the City. 

“A Hunter was with them. Not dead. Picked this place apart for anything useful before leaving. Explains why those two are positioned like that I guess, give this Red Legion too much credit to be at least decent and respect the dead right?” Ghost informed her. “They did leave some binoculars and a radio though… so we have that…”

Tired Polaris collapsed onto the floor. “Brilliant!” She muttered, “no guns, no nothing. BUT! We have some binoculars and a radio!” She gave a little sarcastic chuckle to herself thinking about their situation. “We are really, really, screwed aren’t we?”

“Look! A rucksack! That’s got to have some good stuff in it,” Ghost told her, as he scanned a backpack that was slumped up by some rocks. She picked up the radio and binoculars and threw them into the backpack.

Polaris laid there for a while thinking of what to do next. They were near Twilight Gap, maybe they could find something there. They were also near grasslands if they kept heading down; there they were more likely to run into Fallen but also other refugees. They had a radio, maybe they could signal for help, a Guardian could find them; or Cabal… Too many choices. She didn’t know what was best. Guardians had never been on their own before, at least not for a very long time before her. Even when Ghost first found her they knew what to do, find a ship and head for the City. Now what? There was no City, there was no Vanguard. Finally she got up determined she knew what to do. “Ghost!” Polaris commanded, “We are heading towards Twilight Gap. We’re going to make some either finding or making weapons, anything to defend ourselves. Then we’re heading into the grasslands. It’s probably more dangerous down there, Hive, Fallen, but it is probably also where we are more likely to find survivors. We are going to try to find a broadcast to lead us somewhere, and if not… I guess we’ll send out our own… and hope Guardians find us first.” 

Towards Twilight Gap they headed. Sneaking through open passages to avoid being seen by any undesirables, and quickly making their way through tighter areas where they were easy to be picked off. They sidled across a a precarious ledge before reaching some wider rocky platforms. It was risky, where they wanted to go now involved jumping to rocky plateaus, and missing would end badly for them. still, this was their plan and they had to follow through. She jumped from platform to platform, Ghost tucked away in her backpack. On the last couple ledges this underestimated the gap, slamming into the side of the ledges and scrambling her way to up safety. Eventually she jumped down onto the snowy, rocky, outside of Twilight Gap where Shaxx had used to hold Crucible matches. She smiled, nothing mattered there. If you died you came back and hit the other side with even more fury to secure your objective. Her favourite thing was to use her Sunsinger abilities in Elimination and when her teammates were down to self-revive to bring them back, the only time she’d stop using Voidwalker abilities. Now there were no powers, no reviving. 

She wandered through the old facility looking for anything useful. Inside, she could see she wasn’t the first one here. Undisturbed footprints and raided crates told her as much; but these weren’t human, no, Fallen. They were quick to move in and pick the place clean. She couldn’t blame them, not really, they had come here to do the exact same thing. What more right did she have to claim this place than them? After all the Fallen had just been trying to survive even longer than Humanity or the Guardians. Fallen were thorough, leaving nothing of use to the Guardian. The best she could find was a lone shock dagger, still clutched by the dead Dreg that had previously wielded it. It would have to do. “Come on, let’s get out of here,” Ghost told her. The two headed to the end of the facility and made their way outside onto some grating. “Only way is down from here…” Ghost murmured. And so down they’d go.

Polaris jumped over the railing, landing on a partly snowed clearing, near the old rusted tower. From there she carefully lowered herself down the cliff, jumping from edge to edge. Halfway down the mountain she stopped to take a breather, Polaris had never done anything like this before - at least never this physically exhausting. No Light was quickly losing its charm, and it had no charm to begin with. She retrieved both Ghost and the radio from her backpack. “How’s it going bud?” she whispered to him.

“I’m not picking anything up anymore,” Ghost informed her. Her Little Light was looking pretty worse for wares compared to her, sure Voidfand was tatters and her guns were so busted that she’d had to just abandon them at the City, but Ghost could still heal her. Without him… She didn’t want to dwell on it. But with no Light nothing could heal Ghost. His light had kept flickering since she found him in the City, it stabilised itself for the most part but it still happened - and that worried her. Worse his shell was still very beaten up from the fall and occasionally gave out little sparks. Ghost wanted to protect her, but even more she had to protect him.

“Could be you’re a little damaged?” Polaris suggested, pulling out the radio’s antenna. 

“Damaged!” He gasped in offence. “I’m not damaged, and you should do well to remember that! You’re always doing stupid stuff with Callisto getting yourselves killed. So if anything you are more likely to be damaged. I’m working just fine you don’t need that scrap metal.” Ghost attempting to fold the antenna away by pressing down his whole body on the top of it. 

Polaris smiled at her little defensive Ghost, brushing him out of the way and putting the radio away herself. “Okay, I won’t use this scrap metal until you think we should,” she cooed at him. Ghost may have been a sphere with some pointy triangles but his face looked very happy after she said that. 

Eventually they ran out of ridges and pathways to follow down the mountain. All that way left was a steep slope. “You think we’ll make it?” Ghost asked her.

“Don’t think we have a choice…” She told him. Polaris sat down and pushed herself off the side of the cliff. As she slid down the mountainside, snow, mud, rocks, and foliage all flicked up towards her head. The visor was cracked and one of her horns was missing but she was still thankful she kept her helmet with her to keep the debris from her face. 

At the bottom of the slope Polaris bottom half was coated in a thick layer of dirt and mud. The original red of her jumpsuit lost, replaced by a grey-brown, and a layer of dirt coated the visor of her helmet. Still the two carried on, they’d just have to make do. It was warmer now, out of the City, and out of the mountains. This was the first time Polaris had entered the forest that surrounded the mountains just outside the city. There was never any need to go there before today. The tall fir trees just let in slithers of light as they towered above. The leaves rustled gently in the breeze. It was the first time since they attack that she’d felt somewhat relaxed. Maybe everything would be okay. 

They walked for hours before finding a stream. Ghost made his way out of her backpack to suggest they camp there and recover a little before moving on, Polaris readily agreed with him. She placed the backpack on the ground, placing her helmet next to it, and started to build herself a little camp. A few longs to sit on, some sticks placed in the theoretical shape of a bonfire - she hadn’t yet worked out how to actually light it. And a collection of branches lent against the side of a rock, long enough that she could lay down in there, Polaris hadn’t yet convinced herself ready to do that one.

Returning to the stream she removed her gauntlets, boots, and shimmied her way out of Voidfang and removing her jumpsuit. Ghost seemed concerned with her apparent recklessness. “Polaris, what if someone finds us!”

She frowned at his, simply stating, “why? I’m not naked.” Gesturing to her shorts and vest. “And what is the armour going to do if Cabal, or Hive, or Fallen find us. I have a knife, and that's it. Punch them? That’s some Titan bullshit.” Polaris promptly ignored Ghost’s frustrated sighs and began knocking her boots together to get rid of the mug that they were caked in.

One muddy stick later, and herself covered in grime, Polaris had more or less successfully removed most of the dirt from her clothes. Now she just had to remove the dirt and mud from herself. The water was cool on her skin, it felt nice, she decided she’d have to do this again sometime when they life wasn’t in danger every second. Looking at the gentle stream she could see a wobbly distorted image of her reflection. Her lipstick had stained across her purple face, and her usual neat dark line that ran down her nose was gone. The usually neat straight hair was scruffy and out of order. Polaris frowned at the reflection, it wasn’t neat, and it wasn’t tidy. It wouldn’t do. She dunked her head straight into the stream and furiously rubbed at her face to remove it. Pulling her head out to inspect her work she was reasonably happy. Getting out of the river she looked at the stick pile, frowning. “Ghost, where are we on getting a fire going?” Very upbeat Ghost informed her that the backpack they’d taken had a box of matches inside it. Polaris pursed lips, nodded slowly, and retrieved the match box.

Late into the night the fire flickered gently. Polaris shuffled into her little shelter, using her folded clothes as a pillow. Ghost floated over to his Guardian nuzzling her cheek. “Hey, Ghost, have you picked anything up on comms since…?” she asked, gently stroking her Ghost.

“No…” he sighed, looking away.

“Tomorrow shall we try that radio? I’m not saying you’re damaged, but it might have some luck?” Polaris continued, smiling at him.

A little annoyed Ghost huffed back, “fine.”

Polaris laughed a little, and kissed Ghost. “Night, Ghost” She whispered.


	3. Chapter 3

It was nice, relaxing, sure the ground was hard and uncomfortable, but the sunlight was warm. It was so nice Polaris decided she could stay there all day, and that was exactly her plan. She was beginning to drift back to sleep when Ghost started whispering to her. “Polaris… Polaris, we have company… it’s a Fallen.”

She tensed up at his words, maybe it hadn’t seen them, maybe it thought she was dead. Fallen… quietly she asked back, “what’s it doing?”

Ghost peaked up to watch the alien. The Fallen was just a Vandal, adorned in red - House of Devils - but this was dressed differently, it wore very little armour, carried no weapons, and was sporting a makeshift bag with it. “It’s one of the Devils. Vandal. Poking around the ashes of the fire.” The Fallen hadn’t noticed them, all it had seen was the ashes remnants of their small campfire and the backpack they’d left out there. “It’s unarmed. No rifles, no daggers…” Ghost updated his Guardian on the Fallen as he covertly watched. The Fallen sieved through the remnants looking for anything of interest but failed to find anything. Next it moved onto the backpack, picking it up with its lower arms and sifting through the contents with the upper pair. It became very interested with the shock dagger, examining it closely but ultimately placed it down on the floor with the rest of the contents it had finished looking at. Eventually it pulled out the radio, and began examining it closely. “It’s got the radio, we need that!” Ghost cried. 

Slowly Polaris shuffled her way out of the shelter and began to dress herself, as thee pair watched the Fallen closely

The Vandal sat down, radio still in its hands, fiddling with the device. It pulled out the long antenna and began to play around with the dials, Ghost wasn’t sure but it seemed as though the Fallen was looking for something. Finally the Fallen folded up the radio and shoved it into its bag. 

The Vandal had been so engrossed with the radio it hadn’t noticed the now mostly dressed Guardian crouched behind it. It hadn’t noticed them until it had turned around to leave and looked the Guardian in the eyes. Seeing it from the front Polaris could now see that it was a very odd looking Fallen, its eyes were a far duller blue than most Fallen. The Vandal simply looked the Guardian up and down, the Guardian didn’t move, it could easily see she was unarmed. It did take the time to inspect her flickering Devils bond, the Guardian really hoped this wasn’t going t be the thing that set the Vandal on them. 

Polaris glanced over to the shock dagger, so did the Vandal, if it wanted it could have easily picked it up and lunged at her - that’s what she expected it to do. The Vandal looked back at her again and shuffled closer, it was now only a couple feet away - still staring. As the Vandal edged closer, Polaris edged back. It never came closer than a foot to her. The pair stayed that way for a few minutes before the Vandal scurried off into the woods.

“We have to follow it,” Polaris said determined.

Nervous, Ghost replied, “are you sure? I mean it was a Fallen… maybe we shouldn't?”

“It has our radio.” She replied bluntly. Polaris stuck her helmet and gauntlets into the bag with the rest of its contents, following after their peculiar Vandal thief.

The Vandal was either bad at not being followed or had no concerns about the Lightless Guardian following it. Polaris and Ghost tracked the Fallen for hours, never losing sight of it, but never getting especially close either. She was sure the Vandal knew it was being followed, too, and sure it had looked back at them a couple times too. The more they followed, the more she was intrigued by the Vandal. 

Jumping over a fallen tree and climbing through shrubbery, Polaris followed the curious Fallen to the underpass of an old bridge. The underpass was littered with numerous broken pieces of machinery and tech. Hanging from the wall was a tattered Devils banner, fluttering occasionally from the wind. The curious Fallen had placed the radio in a pile of scrap, placing its attention to some tech that lay on a table. If the Vandal knew the Guardian was there it wasn’t interested, its back facing her the Vandal had a set of tools it was using to fix the tech on its table. As she got to the underpass Polaris coughed to gain the Vandal’s attention. It looked over its shoulder quickly to see what the noise was, Polaris stood there still showing her bare hands to the Fallen. The Vandal simply turned back to its work. Polaris stepped closer and retrieved the shock dagger from her bag and coughed again. Again the Vandal turned around to face her, this time she slowly placed the dagger on the ground and stepped closer. The Vandal narrowed its eyes watching her closely. Polaris under her breath muttered, “Ghost tell it we need our radio back.”

“I don’t know…” Ghost whispered back worried.

“Tell it,” she said again. Ghost hovered up to her shoulder and spoke to the Vandal. Intrigued the Vandal placed its tools back on the table and scurried to the radio, picking it up and holding it close to its chest. “Tell it we don’t want to harm it. Tell it we’re lost and we need that radio to find help. Tell it… tell it Cabal attacked the Traveler and we’re trying to get away from them.”

“Po-” Ghost began unsure, she had good intentions, but did the Fallen?

Affirmed she said, “tell it, I’m sure.” Again Ghost spoke to the Fallen in its own language. The Vandal looked curious, it beckoned her closer. Polaris obliged stepping towards the Vandal, it stepped closer to her pacing around the Guardian.

“I don’t like this,” Ghost whispered to her.

“Neither do I…” she whispered back, as the Vandal paced. Eventually it held out the radio to them, Polaris grabbed the radio expecting for the Fallen to let go but instead it shoved the device into her chest and scurried off back to its work bench. “I guess we can have it…” She whispered. The Vandal pointed to some boxes then spoke at them in Eliksni. 

Ghost turned to her to translate. “It… uh… He? Said we can sit down if we want… to find our friends… I think… It’s a lot easier speaking than translating you know.” The two shuffled over to the plastic boxes the Vandal had pointed at and sat down. 

Ghost and Polaris played with the radio for a long time before finally picking up a very static signal from some refugees. When she heard the people’s voice her face lit up, finally they were getting somewhere. 

“This… located at the outskirts of the city… refugees are advised to... “ The radio buzzed.

“There are survivors!” she beamed.

The Fallen turned back to them, seemingly done with its works and spoke to them. Again it spoke to the Guardian and Ghost translated, “he said to wait here?” The Vandal hurried off behind a large pile of tech. “What do you think he’s doing?” Ghost asked. Soon he came back riding a pike. The Vandal gestured to the pike seat and spoke to them again. Again Ghost translated for her, “he says he knows where the refugees are. He can take us to them… should we? I’m not sure this is a good idea.”

Polaris looked around, trying to decide what to do. The pike had odd symbols on it, ones she’d never seen before, if they belonged to a Fallen house it was a new house. The symbols were faded and scratched away. “Shall we?” Polaris jested to Ghost. She nodded at the Vandal and sat on the back of the pike. If they didn’t have the Light they may as well take all the help they could get, and if the Vandal wanted to kill them it could have done so ages ago.

It felt strange on the back of the pike. It felt even stranger being sat on the back of the pike with a Fallen. Was it okay to touch them, for stability. It felt wrong, was it? The Vandal didn’t react at least, and it helped keep her from being flung off the pike. 

The pike eventually stopped and the Vandal pointed forward. “I guess this our stop?” Polaris looked around very confused but hoped off pike. She thanked the Vandal and started walking in the direction it had pointed. 

Ghost made his way out of the backpack to talk. “Very strange, right?”

“Strange times…” she whispered to him, “Ghost, remember to mark that Eliksni’s camp on our map okay?


	4. Chapter 4

Walking well into the evening eventually led the Guardian and her Ghost to a refugee camp. There were a lot of people all seemingly knowing what they should be doing, a lot of supplies, and a number of ships ready for take-off. Polaris wandered somewhat carelessly through the camp just trying to take everything in, these people weren’t Guardians but they seemed so much more organised than them. She was so caught up in her own thoughts she hadn’t picked up on the disruption she was causing, or how much in the way she was getting. 

Finally a dark skinned woman in a poncho stopped her, sarcastically remarking, “Oh look, somebody left a perfectly good Guardian lying around. Things must be worse than I thought.”

“Oh! Oh uh… Hello? Yes… Hello,” Polaris stammered.

“Hello,” the lady repeated to her.

“Yes… We are lost. I… Can we help you?” Polaris asked very unsure, she never actually directly helped humans before. Before it was always an order from the Vanguard. 

The woman laughed a little, then her expression looked serious. “Help. Yeah, you could actually. You’re a Guardian so you know how to fight, better probably than these injured people at least.” Despite her comments, which Polaris was pretty sure were digs at her, the woman’s tone was still very kind. “Take this.” She threw a shotgun at her and whistled. A hawk flew down to perch on the lady’s arm. “Name’s Hawthorne, this is Louis. We’re getting these people outta here. Can you fly?” Polaris nodded at her, this seemed to at least make Hawthorne simile. “Great. All right people, spin ‘em up! Got a long flight ahead of us!” Hawthorne led her to a jumpship while rounding up the other refugees.

“Where are we going?” Ghost asked to her.

“As far away from here as possible. Time to make yourselves useful. Help get these refugees out.”

The Farm was nice; not safe in the Tower with the other Guardians and the Light nice, but still pretty good. It was located in the European Dead Zone, she’d gone here a couple times before. Her first Fireteam took her to the EDZ on a scouting mission looking into odd Fallen behaviour, and to test out her abilities. She thought about her old Fireteam a lot, sure Callisto was her new teammate and friend, but their death still weighed heavy on her. Polaris had been thinking more and more about death since the attack, it had always been a possibility but now it was a potential outcome to almost everything she could do. “ _But the Farm is nice_ ,” she had to keep telling herself that.

Hawthorne found her again later offering a set of clothes. “Looks like you could use these, kid.” Polaris stared down confused at them, they weren’t Warlock armour, they weren’t armour at all. Civilian clothes. “Not everyone here is super fond of Guardians right now, but I’m sure if anyone starts anything you’ll be able to end it quickly. More importantly these are relatively clean and not torn to shreds.”

“Oh… Yes!” Polaris blurted out. “Yes, thank you. It’s not a poncho is it? Not sure I’m ready for that.”

Hawthorne pursed her lips muttering, “don’t push it, kid.” Handing the Guardian the stack of clothes she informed her, “when you get the chance can you come see me? I may have a job if you want it.”

Later Polaris sat at the edge of the Farm staring off at the Shard of the Traveler. She’d not seen it before today, she didn’t even know it was a thing. It was from the Light but the area around it looked so dead, and inside the Shard itself raged a vicious storm. Ghost had been very quiet since they arrived at the Farm, simply sitting on his Guardian’s head watching the Shard with her. Both were trying to think of a plan to reclaim the Light, maybe the Shard could help, maybe the Shard had turned malicious. Too many variables. 

It was middle of the afternoon before anyone spoke to Polaris again. “Hi.” She’d been so focused on trying to make a plan she hadn’t noticed the young girl that had come to sit down next to her. The Guardian simply looked very shocked at the child. “My name’s Emily.” Polaris looked around to see if the child was somehow possibly talking to anyone else but her, the two were sat on the grass alone. “My friend said you’re a Guardian is that true” Polaris looked back at the child, she was small but had large brown eyes and long thick curly hair. The Girl just smiled a large toothy grin at her. Polaris nodded in response to her question, and retrieved Ghost from her head. “Wow! It’s one of them! A Ghost! I knew it! I knew you were a Guardian!” Emily beamed.

“My uh… my name is Polaris,” the guardian stammered, “and this is Ghost, or Little Light, but he doesn’t like that name.”

“That’s a funny name,” the young girl laughed. Her gaze turned to Ghost, intrigued. “Can i hold him?” Ghost looked up at his Guardian, she smiled down to him, the child couldn’t be sinister. Ghost floated over to the child, hovering in her hand, this seemed to make very excited.

They sat in the grass talking for a long time. “How old are you?”

“I’ve been around ten years.”

“I’m ten!”

“You’re very pretty, Emily.”

“So are you.”

They talked for hours about themselves. Briefly Polaris wondered why the Vanguard wouldn’t let kids hang around the Tower more often, then she figured it was probably best kids were kept as far away from Callisto as possible. “Do you want to eat with us?” The little girl asked.

Polaris had to really think on the question. Did Guardians need to eat now? What were the rules for Guardians now? How did anything work now? All these questions were too overwhelming. “Sure!” She smiled. She rode on a pike with Vandal, she could attempt to eat food. The food that night was brown thick stew, Polaris was informed that the stew contained rabbit, whether it did or not made no difference she didn’t eat rabbit - she didn’t eat. It was a weird sensation, eating, and Polaris wasn’t entirely convinced she enjoyed the feeling; but Emily seemed happy. 

In the morning Polaris returned to the edge of the Farm to look at the Shard. Last night she had dreamt of it; running through the Dark Forest, chased by a swelling black mass. Maybe it was a bad dream, maybe it wasn’t. 

Emily plopped down next to her, holding two bowls of white thick porridge. “Hi.” She grinned. “Want breakfast.” Before the Warlock could reply she shoved the bowl into her hands. “So what you thinking about?” Emily asked, shovelling porridge into her mouth.

“The Shard of the Traveler…” Polaris replied. The porridge looked a lot like the stew, but milky white, but it tasted a lot worse than the stew. It was thick, slowly sliding down her throat, scolding her along the way. Polaris quickly decided she didn’t like porridge. 

“Mum says that place is cursed. Miss Hawthorne says everyone should stay away from it.” Emily explained. “Why?”

“I had a dream about it. I think I should investigate it.” Polaris mumbled, she was only partly paying attention to the child, she couldn’t help it, she was so caught up in her own thoughts about the Shard. “Hawthorne would know how to get there…” she continued. Polaris had placed the bowl of porridge on the ground now, and Emily had traded bowls to start eating her portion now, she didn’t mind, if she liked it she could have all. Polaris grabbed Emily by the shoulders, telling her, “enjoy the… well I don’t really know what it is! BUT! I will not eat it again. Thank you.” Polaris scrambled her way up, running into the barn and up the stairs to where Hawthorne was stood with Louis. “I need to go to the Dark Forest. I need to see the Shard. How do I get there?”


End file.
